In 2023 Stardust brings back this sensational performance back to The Netherlands for a big national tour. Please follow our social media to be updated about the touring schedule.
The Greatest Swan Lake in the World from China will be on display for three weeks from 30 August 2023 in the Royal Theater Carré in Amsterdam and then on tour in Groningen, Rotterdam and Heerlen. At the initiative of Stardust Theatre, producer of this impressive ballet feast, the English top choreographer Derek Deane has breathed new life into his beautiful version of the Greatest Swan Lake in the World with the Shanghai Ballet.
The scenes with 48 swans – twice as many as normal – are of a moving beauty.
This impressive version of Swan Lake was shown in the Netherlands six years ago and was embraced by the public and press with rave reviews:
“Breathtaking… otherworldly… moving beauty…
pure lyricism, fragile with a lot of grace … virtuoso
A large, flawless Swan Lake… Like a perfect Impressionist painting…
This is Swan Lake as it should be and as you rarely see it”
The Shanghai Ballet also garnered international acclaim, building up a strong reputation.
Choreographer Derek Deane himself says about his masterpiece: “It is even more moving and poetic. They are, as it were, large paintings by Degas, in which the tranquil “tableaux” are brought to life again and again”
Without affecting the authenticity of Swan Lake, the former artistic director of The English National Ballet has added a beautiful chapter to this ballet classic with his breathtaking choreography.
The iconic ballet with a timeless story about good and evil still appeals to the imagination.
The fragile ballerinas form an enchanting, homogeneous whole, which in appearance and perfection is not inferior to the Bolshoi or Mariinsky Ballet or The Royal Ballet in London.
Derek Deane: “That was also my big learning experience. As a soloist I was on stage with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. In the golden years I worked with choreographers like Sir Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. I was able to apply all those experiences from that time in this version of Swan Lake.”
Derek Deane's main challenge, he says, was to get the Chinese female dancers and dancers to express their emotions and unite their dance with Tchaikovsky's music. “Music is the basis of everything in classical ballet. When that goes together, a magic is created that moves and touches your heart.”
With this, China demonstrates that it is also among the world's best in classical ballet and that the Shanghai Ballet has gained wings.
Tour schedule:
30 August to 17 September,
20 to 24 September,
26 September to 1 October,
4 to 8 October,